The rise and fall of Mosul

April 11, 2003: Two days after the fall of Baghdad, US forces capture Mosul as the Iraqi Army's 5th Corps surrenders.

July 22, 2003: Saddam Hussein's fugitive sons, Uday and Qusay, are killed in a gunbattle in the city.

June 24, 2004: A series of carbombs in the city kill 62 people, many of them police officers.

November 10, 2004: Police flee the city after a series of attacks on their stations. The US 25th Infantry and coalition forces recapture the city in the Battle of Mosul.

December 2007: Mosul airport briefly reopens, with the first commercial flight since the US declared a no-fly zone over northern Iraq in 1993. The airport is eventually returned to the Iraqi government in 2011.

May 10, 2008: Military offensive launched by US-backed Iraqi forces to restore security in the city.

December 2011: US forces complete withdrawal from Iraq, leaving a US consulate in Mosul with 1000 staff. June 10, 2014: Militants of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) take over the city, forcing thousands to flee.